The present invention relates to an apparatus equipped with a plurality of electronic control units (ECUs) for controlling electronic equipments in a vehicle.
A vehicle is provided with an electronic control unit (ECU) for air conditioning which serves to control the air conditioning in a vehicle compartment, an ECU for an ABS (anti-locking braking system) which serves to prevent a wheel from slipping, an ECU for an air bag which serves to expand the air bag in a collision, an ECU for injecting a fuel which serves to control the amount of jet of a fuel or other various ECUs, for example. Conventionally, these ECUs are provided in spaces in the vicinity of electronic equipment to be controlled, for example, an instrument panel, an engine room or a vehicle compartment.
A plurality of ECUs are disposed in separate spaces in a vehicle, and are respectively connected to an electronic equipment or a sensor to be controlled through a wire harness. For this reason, the number of the wire harnesses to be installed in the vehicle is increased.
Furthermore, each of the ECUs is attached to a vehicle body through a bracket. Consequently, the number of the brackets to be provided in the vehicle is also increased. For this reason, there is a problem in that a weight is increased by the bracket and a burden to a work for attaching the wire harness or the bracket is increased. In view of the above, it is proposed that a plurality of ECUs are mounted on one mother board (cf., Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 6-97683A and 2003-304083A).
In the configuration disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-97683A, only one connector is provided for a plurality of ECUs mounted on one board. Therefore, the wire harness connected to the board has to be branched to be electrically connected to every position (destination) in a vehicle (for example, an instrument panel, an engine room, and a vehicle compartment). For this reason, there is a problem in that the wire harness becomes complicated.
In the configuration disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-304083A, a connector is provided for each of ECUs mounted on a board. For this reason, the connector is to be connected corresponding to the number of the ECUs mounted on the board. Consequently, the burden to the work for attaching the wire harness to the board is increased. Moreover, it is necessary to cause the wire harness to branch to be electrically connected to every position (destination) in a vehicle. Consequently, there is also a problem in that the wire harness becomes complicated.